A data centre company has worked out a way to use the fact that a lot of Holland is technically under sea level and periodically requires small boys to save the country by sticking their hands in dykes.

Aelecity Group is using innovative technology in its new Amsterdam data centre, Southeast AMS 5. The site will utilize one of the largest installations of an Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage (ATES) system which will significantly improve the efficiency of the facility's cooling capabilities, and contribute to the data centre's industry-leading environmental performance.

ATES is a thermal technology which utilizes the naturally stored groundwater found in Amsterdam. The system works in harmony with the seasons by storing water in underground wells which is warmed by waste heat from the data centre in the summer and cooled by the lower external temperatures in the winter.

The cool water is stored in the ground and is then used in summer as a part of the cooling process. Alexandra Schless, Managing Director, TelecityGroup Netherlands said that while ATES systems are used widely across the Netherlands, the technology has never been rolled out before on such a large data centre project.

Following the news that Wi-Fi is to be introduced on the London underground in time for the 2012 Olympics, it would seem that not everybody is happy with the move.

New research has revealed that 55 per cent of the British public are against the idea of having Wi-Fi available on the tube. The majority of those against the move claim to be concerned about online privacy.

A new study from www.MyVoucherCodes.co.uk has found that just over half of Britons are unhappy with the move to bring the internet underground. The poll of more than a thousand British people found that most of the people would be concerned for their own privacy when browsing on the tube, particularly when it came to submitting passwords.

A third said they thought it would lead to an increase in thefts on the underground if people had laptops and tablet computers on show at all time. A further 14 per cent of the respondents who were unhappy with it all thought that people spending their whole journey using the internet would lead to ‘increased stress’ whilst travelling. Another seven percent thought people with laptops took up too much room. It depends on what sort of laptop we guess.

Mark Pearson, Chairman of MyVoucherCodes.co.uk, said that attitudes may well have changed in the last year, but it’s quite exciting that Wi-Fi will be made available on the tube during the Olympics. It was quite surprising to find out the number of people who were against the introduction of Wi-Fi on the underground.

“I would’ve thought, particularly with the advances in the world of technology, that people would be happy to see the availability of the internet on the tube; making internet access more readily available in all aspects of everyday life, so it will be interesting to see how people react to it,” he said.